Meet Feisty the tit aka as a chickadee
Tits
‘On a tree by a river a little tom-tit
Sang "Willow, tit willow, tit willow"
And I said "little Dicky-bird, why do you sit
Singing 'Willow, tit willow, tit willow'’
From Gilbert & Sullivan’s The Mikado
Oddly enough, the willow tit was never spotted on the bird feeder at Wild Poplars. This, despite TSM (The Sheep Man) convincing me I should move it further away from my static and nearer the straggly willow which might have persuaded the shyest of the titmouse family to appear.
‘Having that there'll ensure you get rats if you haven’t already got them’ TSM pronounced.
Rats were already evident in abundance slipping through the gap between two sheds in order to get in and out of my new home. But it was enough for me to shift the bird feeder a little further from the caravan and nearer the hedge.
I make no apology for calling the titmouse a tit. Linked In flags any post referring to tits as inappropriate, confirming how removed non-human online life has become. I would have thought that advances in artificial intelligences and refinements of the algorithm might have been able to differentiate between bird and human context.
However, if you are in the USA or Canada you need to know I am referring to the chickadee.
My first visitor to the bird feeder was a blue tit.
I called him Feisty because he was. And if I’d been quicker with my mobile he could have made me go viral online and I might be known as the tit lady rather than the tea lady. Maybe I’m glad my phone wasn’t to hand…
Feisty was the tiniest of the smalls, only ‘out-smalled’ by a wren. He looked like a ‘he’, had lost a lot of feathers, probably due to his attitude of taking on those larger than himself. The Great Tits, next to appear, respected Feisty but none of the other blue tits. Always up for a spat, always last to leave if there was hawkish danger above.
Nothing particularly remarkable other than I accrued an unreasonable soft spot for Feisty until…
… until the arrival of Mr P the cock pheasant. Feisty was about to become less feisty, more fun-loving and be crowned 'Amazing Tit' [tomorrow!].
#tits #chickadees #smalls